Items or objects such as many food objects are marketed and sold in batches of predetermined size, weight or number of objects in each package. In the recent years, the food industry has been looking for a good method to trace their product through the production line, from slaughtering/catching to the end user/buerThere is therefore a need for a method. It would be very beneficial to have a tracing method for associating information that is unique to the item to the item or a batch of items through batching and packing. Information such as source, date of catching, slaughtering or manufacturing as well as information relating to the processing can easily be stored and associated with items using modern database and unique ID technology.
There are many uses for such information, where source or history of processing is stored for later use. In the food industry, such as the meat processing industry, methods have been developed to trace meat products through packaging of primal cuts back to a carcass from which the primal cuts was obtained. Then these primal can be traced forward if they are re-packed or used in preparing half-cooked or cooked food for sale in supermarkets. If the tracing method is used such that the information on the origin of the food items is associated with the food through the whole process, it is possible to identify from which animal the meet came if a problem arises. Information food items which are either individually packed or packed in batches may be recalled in order to trace to its origin.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,949,154 discloses a method for associating source information with food products, where a computer method and imaging sensors which capture image data of an object, as it moves through a processing facility and is converted into individual food products. The image data is analysed and the computer method produces a blob for the objects and source information referenced with the object can be associated with the object's blob. The blob is then used to trace and identify the object, and to determine when one or more additional objects have been converted from the object being monitored.
It would be very beneficial to have a tracing method which can be used to identify the source of problems or contamination when the food items have been packed, distributed and sold in the marketplace.